Kim Jong Un Meets China's Wang Huning, Vows to Deepen Beijing Ties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Wang Huning, one of China's most senior officials, in Pyongyang and pledged to deepen ties with Beijing, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Wang, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee and China's fourth-highest-ranked leader, is chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He arrived in the North Korean capital on Wednesday leading a Chinese delegation, with the summit taking place the following day.

The talks are the latest in a series of exchanges between the two governments after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited North Korea in June, his first trip there in seven years. Analysts read the flurry of visits as an effort by Beijing to reinforce its influence over a traditional ally at a time when Pyongyang's relationship with Moscow is expanding rapidly.

North Korea has drawn sharply closer to Russia in recent years, signing a strategic defense agreement and deploying thousands of troops to support Moscow's war in Ukraine. Even so, China remains North Korea's largest economic partner, and both sides said they would work to implement the agreement reached during Xi's June visit.

During that earlier summit, Xi and Kim adopted what North Korean media called a "far-reaching blueprint" for strengthening ties, with the Chinese leader pushing for closer diplomatic, law enforcement and military cooperation. Kim told Wang this week that developing the countries' traditional friendship was a "steadfast policy," KCNA reported.

Wang, in turn, said China's support for North Korean socialism under Kim's leadership would "never be changed," according to the agency. During the trip the Chinese delegation visited a memorial to Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War, a Workers' Party training school, and the mausoleum holding the remains of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Earlier in the visit, Wang met with Jo Yong Won, a top figure in North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, and pledged Beijing's commitment to carrying out what the two leaders agreed to the previous month.